Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship

Our program has a lot to offer and we are passionate in our dedication to providing our fellows with excellent training to allow them to successfully take on their professional identities as geriatric psychiatrists of the future who will help improve the lives of our older adult patients and their families while also leading the way to teach others to improve the overall quality of care for older adults in the community.

The University of Wisconsin (UW)/William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison (MVAH) Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program (GPFP) began in 1980, making it one of the oldest in the country. Co-sponsored by the UW Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, it is committed to preparing physicians to meet the challenges of providing care to elderly patients with complex, interacting psychiatric, medical, and social problems. This has been achieved through an integrated program where geriatric psychiatry fellows and geriatric medicine fellows work closely with each other and with interdisciplinary teams, under the clinical supervision of geriatric psychiatry and geriatric medicine faculty, who themselves work and teach in tandem. The GPFP is a key component of the MVAH’s Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), a National Center of Excellence for the care of older adults within the VA Healthcare System, first established in 1991.

The one-year GPFP provides geriatric psychiatry fellows with opportunities to provide direct care and consultations for patients in a number of different clinical settings. Fellows also have the opportunity to teach medical students, residents and other trainees to hone their skills as clinical educators. Outpatient sites include the Mental Health Clinic, the Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) Clinic, and the GRECC Memory Assessment/Dementia Clinic at the MVAH. Our fellows also gain experience in delivering inpatient geriatric psychiatry services at the nearby Mendota Mental Health Institute’s Geropsychiatric Treatment Unit and in long-term care at the Badger Prairie Health Care Center, a 120 bed skilled nursing facility run by Dane County. The world-renowned Dane County Mental Health Center’s Mobile Outreach to Seniors Team is the training site for community-based geropsychiatric home care. Geriatric psychiatry fellows can also work on electives ranging from basic science to clinical education projects to subspecialty clinical work.